The Perfect Fit

TOKYO - Excellent engineering has been a hallmark of Honda Motor Co., part of its core corporate culture.

In contrast, Honda's designs don't usually win critical acclaim. In the U.S. market Honda's styling is often seen as conservative or even dull.

But that is changing.

North American buyers have seen sporadic hints of Honda's design flair, from the original NSX to the intuitive feel of Honda's cockpits to the nifty rear seats in the Odyssey minivan that fold into the floor.

Honda has cranked out a string of hits in Japan such as the StepWGN minivan and the Fit subcompact, boosting its market share, often at the expense of market-leader Toyota Motor Corp. In each case, it is the vehicle's styling that attracts buyers, not its engine.

Honda has lured customers with a concept-driven design strategy.

"We're emphasizing the concept (for a vehicle) so much," said Yoshio Ui, Honda's senior chief engineer, who oversaw designs of hot models such as the Odyssey, StepWGN and Fit. Honda's design philosophy aims "to put the concept and styling (of a vehicle) together," he said.

More than stylists

Ui, 50, one of Honda's four top designers, is working on variations of the Fit. They include a compact model, to

be built in Thailand for sale there this year and to be shipped to Japan next year.

At Honda, designers are not just stylists brought in to give shape to someone else's vision. They join engineers and sales managers from the outset to form the concept for a model. Honda's vehicle concept philosophy is based on founder Soichiro Honda's motto: Break the mold and create a new standard.

Take the Fit. A short nose and an aerodynamic-shaped roof were designed to tackle three contradictory elements needed to make the 1.3-liter Fit unusual: a feel of sporty driving, a spacious cabin and better fuel economy.

For the StepWGN, the concept was "outside living." The boxy, tall minivan looks more like a commercial vehicle. Yet it offered huge interior space and a variety of seating arrangements, and debuted against a growing trend of carlike sporty minivans.

Honda's concept-driven approach has been successful. But in many ways, Honda still follows Toyota. A follower has no choice except to create an unusual concept for a model to appeal to a broader group, Ui said.

That strategy works when combined with Honda's shrewd marketing tactics. Honda introduced the Odyssey in 1994, for example, four years after Toyota came up with the Estima minivan to pave the way for Japan's minivan boom. The Odyssey reversed Honda's weakness - no light trucks - into a strength.

The Estima's design was still trucklike, with the engine intruding into the passenger compartment and truck-style dimensions.

The Odyssey, like Chrysler minivans, put the engine out front. And it was based on the Accord's platform to produce a more carlike ride.

Honda's concept caught on with Japanese consumers, with first-year sales more than triple the targeted volume.

Different path

To craft vehicles such as this, Honda has chosen not to elevate a high-profile design czar who pushes design to the forefront.

That contrasts with Nissan Motor Co. Under the direction of Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, chief designer Shiro Nakamura has shown up in a series of TV commercials to rebuild Nissan's frayed brand image.

"We are not going to leave everything to o ne (designer)," said Hiroyuki Yoshino, Honda's president, who headed Honda's r&d arm until he took the helm.

Instead, the Fit, for example, enlisted support from both Japanese and European designers.

In visualizing the concept for the compact car - good fuel economy, a practical use of space and sporty handling - a Japanese designer emphasized a streamlined body to show a strong personality.

Meanwhile, a German designer featured a roundish frontend to exude a European taste, plus a sporty interior, realized in an instrument panel with an open-line motif.

Eventually, the production model came up with a short nose and a stretched cabin, pushing the A-pillar forward and adding a small triangle-shaped side window to provide a wider view. The design seats four 75-inch-tall passengers.

"We wanted the Fit to be the kind of car that gives you an excitement when you sit in a driver's seat and comfort when you sit in a passenger seat," Ui said.

Driving design

After designers visualized the Fit concept in a sketch and a mockup, engineers lowered the floor by placing a fuel tank in the center of the body to produce a high cabin and a variety of seating arrangements.

Ui said there were few designer-engineer confrontations because they had agreed on the purpose of the Fit concept when they had discussed it. Honda constantly reinforces the idea that designers and engineers are in the same boat. Both wear white uniforms, and designers are titled engineers.

The Fit hit the jackpot. Between July - its first full month on the market - and April, the compact model ranked as Japan's top-selling vehicle in four months and No. 2 in the remaining six months, excluding minivehicles with engines smaller than 660cc. The Fit's average monthly sales during that period are 17,319, more than double the goal of 8,000.

Designline

Did you know that Honda's first mass-produced car was the 1963 Honda Sports S500, which was sold in Japan? The car's project leader, Yoshio Nakamura, had a background in aircraft engineering.

Priorities

The Honda Fit has been a big seller in Japan. Honda wanted the vehicle to achieve 3 things.

1. Good fuel economy

2. Practical use of space

3. Sporty handling

Eye on competition

An array of hit models proves that Honda's designers did a good job. They have to be on their guard, though, because their rivals have strengthened their design efforts to better distinguish their vehicles in a crowded market. In his TV commercials, Nissan's Nakamura sends a message that the automaker is hot to put design at the forefront of its recovery.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is trying to use eye-catching design to rebuild an image damaged by a recall scandal and several widely publicized accidents. Last year, Mitsubishi hired Olivier Boulay as chief designer. Both Nakamura and Boulay - who report directly to their CEOs - are authorized to make quick decisions on designs.

Honda's concept-driven design strategy probably won't change. While designers work on production vehicles in studios at the Wako R&D Center, near Tokyo, others devote their efforts to combining futuristic engineering and design in a separate design studio at the Tochigi R&D Center, also near Tokyo.

In the end, Honda's careful balance of design and strong engineering sets it apart from other automakers.